Third Time Lucky
by Dyslexic CSI
Summary: "Nice shirt, it brings out your eyes," she said as she played with the first button of his sky blue dress shirt. House smiled in return, "you don't look too bad yourself," he complimented her for the first time in years. House Cuddy


**Disclaimer: **Okay David Shore still owns everything and I still don't know who the song belongs to but it's definitely not me. 

**A/N: **This was posted a few days ago under the name Sway, but as I read I saw there were minor adjustments that needed to be made. That and I stopped it at a very awkward place and it didn't make sense or flow as easily if I had broken it up into chapters. So here is the entire fic. 

Also I do not own a dress or a skirt or anything that resembles either one, so I hope the description was good. If it was not I'm sorry, just try and overlook the mistakes.

Written after I heard amy friend playing the piano and I suddenly turned nostalgic and this is what came about from that. 

* * *

**Third Time Lucky**

_When the rhythm starts to flow_

_Dance with me_

_Make me sway_

_Like the lazy ocean rocks the shore_

_Hold me close_

_Sway me more. _

Dr Lisa Cuddy slowly stood up from the chair she was seated on, and made her way quietly to the entrance of the splendidly decorated room, her hospital staff were currently occupying. She smoothed her dress down, in an attempt to rid it of the creases that had taken up residence on it when she had taken her seat barely ten minutes ago. 

Most of the board members, almost all the regular donors and many new potential donors had shown up at the charity dinner, and were at ease, getting to know more about each other and the hospital. The mood was friendly and the ambiance easy and light. Still, Cuddy could not fight the feeling that was starting to rear its ugly head in her gut. It was instinct telling her the night was not going all going to happen according to her plan. 

Steeping outside, she allowed the slightly chilled air to brush her face, welcoming the fresh breeze and the clarity it brought to her head. "Just three more hours and it will all be over," she though to herself. Then she smiled, braced herself for the rest of the evening and turned around to re-renter the conference room.

As she walked back in, her gaze fell on the table closest to where she was standing. Nurse Brenda and her band of followers were blushing, and giggling a little too loudly. Cuddy smiled and shook her head slightly, knowing it was not often these nurses indulged in such activities, and for them to release their inner selves occasionally was certainly a treat for the people observing them. 

The sound of crockery and cutlery being placed onto the tray carts and the delicious smell of food brought out by the wait staff signaled it was time for the main meal of the evening. Cuddy quickly took this as an opportunity to return to her seat without being stopped by her staff or anyone else to have inane, pointless conversations. She was greeted by the rest of her staff who were seated at her table. Wilson, Chase and Foreman were all well dresses and their clothes matched those of their attractive dates, Cuddy noticed.

Cameron arrived just minutes before the food was served, and she, Cuddy noted, had brought along a friend as well. She was happy for the younger female doctor, whom she hoped was getting over the major crush or obsession she had on Dr Greg House. She smiled at the brunette, as her date helped her into her seat and eased himself onto the chair next to Cameron.

Her date Harold… (or was it Howard?) was polite enough to commend Cuddy on a job well done. Well, it was an undertaking that deserved praise. She had looked for the most reliable and reputable catering company in New Jersey and she was lucky when she found All Occasion Foods in the yellow pages. The food was delectable and the wine exquisite. She was impressed with herself and the caterers as they had surpassed all her expectations and she should have been, seeing she had paid top dollar for the food and catering alone. 

"I see House has decided not to grace us with his presence tonight," Wilson said noncommittally as he cut up his carrots into smaller pieces. 

Cuddy's mouth went dry and her heart sank a bit, in disappointment, as she looked at the two unoccupied seats next to hers. She had tried to convince her Head of Diagnostics Department to at least show up for a measly ten minutes, to see who the people giving him the money and machinery to perform the tests he needed to on his patients. But, House being House had flatly refused her suggestion not offering one good reason to not attend, or even coming up with any excuse at all. 

"You know how House can be," she replied to Wilson's statement, trying with immense difficulty not to show the disappointment and extreme hurt in her voice.

Wilson nodded his head in confirmation and continued eating the food that was still in his plate, as do the rest of House's team. They had all noticed his absence, but thankfully did not say anything about the annoying, but undoubtedly charming diagnostician. Cuddy had, for some absolutely insane reason, hoped that Greg would have changed his mind and attended this damn charity dinner, but half the evening was already over and he had still not arrived. 

She knew it was a lost cause; he was just not going to attend. She might as well have squished all the expectations she had of him showing up and got on with the evening. She was, however, amazed at the fact that, even when he was not around her, House seemed to be the center of all her dilemmas. 

The task was easier said than done, especially where a certain Dr Gregory House was concerned. Wilson noticed the distracted look on his boss's face and she had not eaten anything. She had merely been pushing the food around on her plate, making it look like she had eaten, to the untrained eye. He decided not to say anything at the moment; this would be a discussion for tomorrow, when she did not have other things to worry about as well. It was also a conversation that needed to be held in the privacy of her office. 

Forty minutes later, the wait staff arrived to clear the tables of the dinner plates, only to replace them with bowls for desserts and coffee mugs for those people who were addicted to coffee. Before the desserts could be served though, one of the new major donors to the hospital decided he needed to give a thank you speech to all who were still at the dinner and present Cuddy with his donation for the year.

X X X 

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to take this opportunity to thank…," that is where Dr House lost interest in the speech. He knew it would take another good ten minutes before the old man was done thanking everyone and would present Cuddy with his offering to the hospital. 

"Damn, why did they always have to do these boring speeches at all these functions?" he asked himself as he drew up a chair and sat just outside the entrance doors to the hall. Rolling his cane between his fingers, House quickly lost all interest in the unattractive old sod who just continued to talk, not giving anyone a chance to say anything else. The staff of PPTH had yet to see him, and House was more than happy with not being noticed and therefore giving him a chance and an excuse to leave if he found this 'dinner' worse than he imagined it would be. 

"And finally I would like to take the opportunity to present Dr Lisa Cuddy with a cheque of two hundred thousand dollars for a new neo-natal ICU," the old bag of bones droned on and on. The only reason House had returned from his stupor was that he heard the geezer say Cuddy's name. 

"Dr Cuddy, if you could please join me up front here," the speaker asked and immediately House's eyes roamed the expanse of the room, searching for his boss, and current source of distraction. He had vehemently denied her polite request to for him to attend the damned dinner, and he was almost going to stand by his decision, when he remembered the defeated, disappointed, let down look in her eyes. 

It almost broke his heart, and he decided that even if it were for a few measly minutes, he would attend, just so he could see her smile. That was the only reason he was going, or that was the excuse he used to convince himself. It was a purely professional reason – there was nothing more to it. 

There was complete silence in the hall; everyone had their eyes trained on Dr Cuddy, as she walked from her seat to the front of the hall to accept the cheque from the newest donor. They waited with baited breath, for her to say something as he placed the cheque in her hands, but all she did was turn around and smile. House noticed while her smile was wide and appreciative, it did not reach her eyes, and he knew the reason, but he was just too chicken to admit it. 

"On behalf of everyone in the hospital I would like to say thank you for this generous donation toward the hospital," Cuddy thanked the donor before making her way back to her seat.

House watched her as she took the return journey to her seat. His breath caught in his throat as he looked at her intently for the first time that night. Her sky blue dress was held up by a thin strap on each shoulder and clung to her curves in all the right places. The neckline was higher than it was on normal days and House found this disturbingly provocative despite his love for the low cut blouses she wore to work on regular days. 

Small silver sequins danced on her dress as she walked and the light shone on to them, making him feel like she was walking amongst the stars. His eyes traced the rest of her body and came to a rest where her dress came to an end – just above her knees. He noted her calves were well defined, something he had not paid attention to before, or maybe because it was never accentuated by three inch blue stilettos before.

One thing was for sure – he was definitely blown away by the 'evil witch' in her bedeviling sky blue dress, softly styled hair, sparkling green eyes that were accented by dark eyeliner and her liberally velvet red painted lips. Oh, he was unquestionably going to have nightmares about a specific 'ruler of all that is evil' tonight.

Finally, she took her seat and dessert was ready to be served. Wilson engaged her in conversation as soon as she was comfortably seated and House took this as his chance to take her up on her request from the previous evening and join the party. The rest of the team did not say a word as House stood behind his chair, which was strategically placed next to hers. Cameron was about to greet him but a glare sent in her direction stopped her from uttering anything and the team decided not to interrupt whatever it was that House was up to. 

He took his seat next to Cuddy, making sure not to interrupt her from her conversation with their friend Wilson. House looked at Cuddy's date with a mixed reaction. He didn't know if he should have been jealous that this 'idiot' was his boss's date or if should have been pissed off that Cuddy had actually decided to drag a date along to this function. He settled on the latter, knowing showing anger was easier for him than showing jealousy. 

He took a piece of the chocolate parcel from the plate in front of Cuddy and placed it in his mouth, waiting for Cuddy to finally acknowledge his presence not only at the dinner, but right next to her. When she did nothing of that sort, he decided he had waited long enough and turned Cameron, who was sitting across him.

"They could have put a bit less sugar in this don't you think? I mean with all the calories and kilojoules going straight to your thighs, it certainly is a wonder why women eat these, and it doesn't seem to help with the mood swings either," House scrunched up his face in an effort to make it look mildly repulsive and got the reaction he wanted to elicit from Cameron. She simply shook her head in defeat. 

"Oh so you decided to prove me wrong and actually bless us with your presence after all," Wilson said to a smirking House. 

"Well it was either I hire a hooker and pay for her services or I could go home with one of the ladies from here, and not pay her for her services and I figured saving one payment would have made a huge difference in my spending allowance," House shot back hotly. 

Cuddy had yet to say anything. She was simply too stunned at the fact that he had changed his mind and actually came to this benefit dinner. She was about to say something when the sound of moving tables and chairs interrupted her train of thought, and she closed her mouth, forgetting what she had to say. 

A few couples were dancing in the cleared space and it seemed a few more were about to follow. Wilson wasted no time in getting his date to join him on the floor and neither did the rest of House's ducklings. Soon enough the only people who remained seated were Cuddy, House and 'penguin nosed guy' who was also known as Cuddy's date. 

Howard stood up and asked Cuddy to dance, but she was distracted when House's hand had found hers and linked their fingers together under the tablecloth. She held the noncommittal expression on her face as she kindly declined the offer for a first dance and a dejected Howard made his way to one of the other tables to find another partner to twirl around on the dance floor. 

"What made you change your mind?" Cuddy's eyes were questioning.

"You know how moody you can get when I don't do my clinic hours, so I decided to come here and miss all the clinic duty. I thought it was a fair swap. Don't you think?" House eyed her with amusement and Cuddy simply shook her head. Well the fact that he showed up here made her feel like she was being unfair on him with the clinic duty and she made up her mind that House would be exempted from doing them for the next week. 

"Hey House! Come up here and dance with us!" he heard Wilson shout across the room. 

Yeah right, with his bum leg he couldn't even walk properly, let alone dance to the fast pop song that was blaring out of the speakers, on the far side of the hall. He saw the anticipation in his very attractive boss's eyes and once more decided his decision was based solely on the fact that he did not want to do any more clinic hours than he had to. Maybe even less than he had been assigned for the week, if he could help it. 

He stood up unsteadily and grabbed onto his cane, with one hand for support and the other stretched out in Cuddy's direction, inviting her to join him. She returned his gaze suspiciously, but placed her hand in his anyway as they padded a path to the middle of the dance floor. As they reached their destination, the pop song that had been blasting from the speakers stopped and was replaced by a soft, soulful piece the musicians started playing. 

He had no idea there was a live band present, but he liked it all the same. There was no way he was going to dance with his boss to a cheesy pop number with mind-boggling lyrics blaring through five thousand watt speakers. If there was something he would dance to, it would be soulful, instrumental and hopefully nothing that conveyed his feeling to her. 

Okay this was just going to be weird to do. How was he supposed to hold on to her as well as his cane at the same time and still move to the music? Clearly, he hadn't thought about the logistics of his decision, but he was House, he would improvise as he needed to. Throwing caution to the wind, House cleared his mind of all the reasons this was so off limits and pulled Cuddy as close into his as he could. He placed his one hand around her waist, bringing her closer than a hairs breadths distance to him and started swaying to the music as steadily as he could.

Cuddy in turn snaked her arms around his neck and placed her head on his chest as he led them in the slow dance. Granted he would not be able to spin her out and twirl her back into him, but she was more than happy to just be in his arms for one dance. She inhaled his scent and was sure to imprint in her brain for future reference. 

"Nice shirt, it brings out your eyes," she said as she played with the first button of his sky blue dress shirt. 

House smiled in return, "you don't look too bad yourself," he complimented her for the first time in years. 

The music flowed and much to House's surprise so did their dance. Cuddy knew just how much to move or what not to do to cause his leg to throb more than it already was. He would have told her, but he saw the content look on her face and changed his mind. Instead he took out the pill container from his pocket and popped two pills to help him deal with the pain in his bum leg. 

Despite was everyone would say later, House was actually enjoying dancing with his superior. It was something he had not allowed himself to do in a long, long time. Not that she was his superior when they had shared their first dance together almost twenty years ago. No one had come close to making him feel the way he did that night, not even the great Stacy Warner, and that said something. He would never admit how comfortable it felt having someone so familiar, yet so unfamiliar at the same time in his arms. 

He did not want to let go of her, not now not ever, but his disastrous past terminated his chance of that happening. Dancing with Lisa Cuddy was like foreplay with clothes on, and he was not done playing just yet. He moved the hand that was holding her waist to her side, stopping at the zipper just below her arm, while the other hand mimicked it' partner on the other side of her body. She pulled her head back to look at him and he smiled at her. They both knew what he was thinking at that moment and a brilliant blush coloured her cheeks from the thought.

She leaned in closer to him and her lips brushed his neck. This woman was going to be the death of him, of that he was certain. Still he gave into the temptation and everything around them seemed to faze out, focusing only on each other and the music still being played by the gifted musicians. 

He lowered his head toward hers and waited for her to lean in her ten percent. "Never go all the way, always wait for her to fill in the last ten percent," he thought to himself. He was not disappointed though and had only managed to brush her lips with his, when he was severely interrupted by one of his 'ducklings'.

"Your cane," Cameron picked up the forgotten cane from the floor and stood, waiting for House to claim the wooden stick from her. 

"Thanks," he smiled painfully and retreated from standing exceptionally close to his extremely attractive boss. 

Something had changed between boss and employee in the last few minutes, and House was not sure if he wanted to let go of the feeling just yet. However, the moment was broken and he was unsure if there would be another one in the not so far future. It had taken them a very long time to get here, and he did not want to spend the same amount of time in the future doing the same thing – trying to get her back. He cursed under his breath and limped back, dejectedly, to their table. Cuddy meanwhile stood rooted to the spot tracing the outline of her lips with her forefinger. 

The music slowly died down and the people were beginning to leave for the evening. Only a few of the hospital staff members remained, to savour what was left of the evening. House spotted the piano on the far side of the room. A lone figure sat behind it, but it looked like he was either too nervous, or too scared to play. 

House smiled as he looked at the second love of his life, and hobbled his way to it. He sat behind it, shooing the lone figure away and played a few notes. He fiddled around with the keys until he was satisfied with the sounds that were emitted from the piano. He rolled up his sleeves and positioned his fingers on the keys, waiting for the right moment to start playing. 

Cuddy was still standing in the centre of the 'dance floor' chatting to a few of the hospital staff members. She was oblivious of House's move from the dinner table to the piano across the room and hence she continued chatting to the people surrounding her. 

All the mumbling and chattering died within a few seconds as the room was filled with a warm, passion-filled melody. His eyes were screwed shut as he played with every nerve, fibre and emotion in his body. He let the music envelop him and he succumbed to its power. Cuddy froze, unable to move as she let the tune drift to her. She knew this tune – it had been embalmed in the far corner of her heart for so long, she had even forgotten it was there. 

House used to play this tune while they were sort of seeing each other in his last year of med school. This was the infamous tune that had led to their one night of unbridled passion. Something had changed while they were dancing and now with House playing this specific tune, she was unsure of what it all meant. 

Unconsciously, she made her way to where he was still playing, his eyes tightly shut and enjoying the feeling the music gave him. She slowly placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it lightly. House opened his eyes and looked up at her. There was no doubt about why he had played this specific tune, but it had the desired effect on Cuddy. She played with the collar of his shirt nervously, waiting for him to end the piece and then they could talk about this… whatever it was. 

Once again, they were interrupted, this time it was Cuddy's date, who they had assumed had gone home already. Cuddy could see he was confused and before he could ask her anything about the whole situation, she decided she could not see him anymore. 

"Howard, I'm really sorry about this, about tonight," she could not look him in the face, but continued nonetheless, "I'm sorry, but I don't think this is going to work. I'm afraid I can't see you anymore," and with that she walked away, not wanting him to see the pain it had caused her to do this the way she did. 

When she turned back to face House she was surprised to find him gone. She surveyed the room carefully; hoping to find him talking to one of his ducklings or even Wilson, but her heart sank when she could not locate him. "Where on earth could he have gone in a matter of minutes?" she asked herself. 

The one place she had a feeling he would be at, was his office – his place of refuge where he felt most safe and more comfortable than anywhere else in the world. She waked up the stairs and down the hallway leading to his office, her heels clicking violently on the tiled floors. His shadow was visible through the window and she wasted no time in following him through his office and onto the balcony. 

She found him sitting on the low wall that divided his balcony from their mutual friends Wilson's balcony. His bum leg was stretched out on the wall, while the other hung down in relaxation, but she knew from the expression in his face that he was in extreme, agonizing pain. He reached for the pill bottle in his jacket pocket and popped another two Vicodins, hoping to relieve the pain. His eyes remained tightly shut, as though he was shutting out the outer world from his own. 

"House?" she ventured slowly and carefully, trying not to jolt him too much. 

He grimaced but turned around to face her. "Cuddy, I thought you were going home with Harvey!" he couldn't help hiding the scathing tone he knew was inevitably going to come. 

Looking at his leg stretched out on the wall, she walked up to where he sat, and placed a soothing hand on his thigh. 

"I'm sorry," she whispers, and before she can say anything else, he places a finger on the lips to keep her quiet. 

It was never discussed but somehow she felt as though she was responsible for the state he was in. After all, it was her idea that they remove the muscle from his thigh to save his leg, and Stacy had agreed. Everything had been done on Cuddy's orders, with Stacy's permission while House was in a coma and she knew he would probably never forgive her for it. However, when she looked at it, she was doing the only she knew to save the life of a man she so desperately loved. 

House positioned his hand on hers and moved it up to her waist as he pulled her closer into him. She could feel the heat of his hand through the dress and she felt as though she was going to erupt into flames at any moment. He stoked her side for a long few minutes and her eyes closed with the comfortable feeling she was experiencing.Her heart wa beating wildly against her ribcage and hermind was swirling with expectation. Her hands were trembling with nervousness, and her body was feeling so, so lucky to have House's hands roam all of it. 

Pulling her as close to him as he possibly could, be brought his other hand to snake around her back, and let it rest there. He knew what the next move was, and he knew if he didn't do it now, he would never have the courage to do so at another point in time, or that she would not have let anything of that sort happen. 

He lowers his head and presses his lips to hers, which are as smooth and compliant as they were all those years ago. He sighs into her mouth as he feels her hands clasping together behind his head and meshing into his hair. As the kiss deepens and House feels her respond as passionately as he has, he knows that this is the point of no return. 

And for some reason he is quite happy with the situation and the feeling. 

They've waited too long to get here and now that he finally has Cuddy back in his life he is not letting her go anytime soon. 

* * *

A/N2: Okay so this was the second attempt. Hope it was better than the first. Let me know what you guys think. 

Reviews are highly appreciated. 

Thanks


End file.
